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Saturday 9 February, 2008
Gameplay 2:
The second time playing my friend and I concentrated on the party game mode and explored the features of the game outside of the single play/challenge mode. The party games are akin to ones found in the Mario Party games, and the more points you get in the main game mode the more party games you can unlock. While some of the games are entertaining and can be amusing while playing with a group of friends, they do not bring the same excitement or challenge for me that the main game mode brings. We tried Monkey Baseball, Monkey Golf, Monkey Target, Monkey Boat and Monkey fight, and only a couple of them offered any sort of challenge or unique gameplay that kept us interested and competitive. Monkey Golf was the funnest, as its almost like billiards in that you hit your monkey through mini-golf like courses, reading angles and fine-tuning your timing for hitting the ball along the way. I thought the party games in the first Monkey Ball, although there were a lot less of them, to be more genuinely entertaining.
I tried out story mode for a little bit to get a feel for it, and would still not recommend it as being central in any way to the game. The muddled storyline serves to propel the characters between different worlds/settings. I didn't really follow the story, but the different settings are what distinguishes the groups of 9 levels from each other (10th levels are bonus stages). In Monkey Ball 1 the levels are almost completely random in terms f difficulty once you get by say stage 5, but in MB2 I'd say the groups of levels (distinguished by setting) do get increasingly harder as you progress. My friend and I lost our remaining lives in the volcano stages, yet we had accumulated enough points in years past to increase the number of lives to 35. If we were stuck with the 5 lives originally granted we would have used all our lives and continues rather early.
Design:
MB2 is a simple game with simple controls that combines with good graphic design and sound design to make a surprisingly fun game. Although easy to learn, the game is definitely hard to master. The level design is the true brilliance of the game, as some of the levels make you wonder what else they can come up with for you to do as a monkey in a ball. MB2 utilizes a 3-D world in its levels a lot more than the first one did, and many levels involve you bouncing super high up into the air and using your controls to navigate through free-fall or getting launched super-fast towards the goal. Examples of unique level designs include a level called "Free Throw" in which you start in front of a long long court with three different baskets with goals in them that are spaced down the court. A huge stretch of the ground continuously launches upwards and then resets, and by placing yourself on the ground and timing it with its movement you can launch yourself towards the baskets in a bunch of different ways. Other levels give you the option to roll over switches that change the movement pattern of various paths/obstacles, or warp gates that transport you to different areas of the level. Once Expert Mode is beaten without losing all your continues, you unlock Master Mode, and after that the Master Extra levels, so the sheer amount of levels that are all quite innovative means there is a lot of room for the player to explore his capabilities and fun ways to beat the levels.
The graphic design is very well done in my opinion, as most levels give you an immediate feeling of vertigo as they are suspended at ridiculously high altitudes in the different settings. The settings are also very graphically appealing and have enough moving parts and weird quirks to go along with the strange vibe of the game. The sound also follows suit, being very funky and strange. The aspect that keeps a player playing I'd say is the strive for mastery of the different levels and the game in general. Score is not as important for me as being able to beat the harder levels in very innovative ways. Look up MB2 on YouTube to see just how ridiculously innovative players can get just utilizing the simple controls of the game with the physics of the game and the different level settings. MB2 is a good example of a game that takes a very simple game concept and executes it with good design to make an enjoyable play experience solo or with friends.
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